Is It Worth the Watch?

Joan Crawford was a rarity among Hollywood’s glamorous Golden Age stars. She wasn’t afraid to play, well, shall we say, aggressive characters. You know, calculating, two-faced characters. Hypocritical, double-dealing characters. 

Okay, I’ll just say it. She wasn’t afraid to play a bitch. In fact, she was exceptionally good at playing them. 

One of her best bitch roles was as the title character in 1950’s deliciously melodramatic Harriet Craig. Miss Crawford plays a manipulative, perfectionist who lies and schemes to get exactly the husband and home she thinks she deserves, even at the cost of those close to her, until she eventually begins to believe her own stories. And she does it with calculated class and delightful deviousness.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning 1925 play, Craig‘s Wife, director Vincent Sherman does a masterful job of setting up the titular villain you love to hate, and has you cheering when her inevitable comeuppance occurs. 

Crawford’s performance is fantastic, always thinking faster than anyone else in the room, always two steps ahead of them all. Until she isn’t. Wendell Corey plays her unsuspecting, none-too-bright husband with assurance and charisma. Lucile Watson stands out as his boss’s charming and perceptive wife. She really couldn’t be better. 

But this is Joan’s movie, and she dominates it firmly, luminously and memorably. 

Is It Worth The Watch? This is one of those films I hadn’t seen because I figured I wouldn’t find it interesting, but I absolutely loved every second of it.

1950

94 minutes

Starring – Joan Crawford, Wendell Corey, K.T. Stevens, Allyn Joslyn, Lucille Watson, William Bishop

Director – Vincent Sherman

Screenplay – Anne Froelick, James Gunn

Source – the 1925 play Craig’s Wife by George Kelly